Police suspect alcohol was involved in an early morning crash that killed one man and sent four others to the hospital with serious injuries.

The accident — characterized by a Denver police spokesman as a “high speed red-light violation” — happened about 12:30 a.m. at 17th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. Preliminary indications were that the cab was driving south on Colorado when it was struck by another vehicle that ran a red light, though the crash remains under investigation, police said.

The two men and woman in the suspect car, all in their 20s, were not wearing seatbelts, said Robert Rock, a Denver police investigator.

Because they all sustained severe injuries, police have not been able to question anyone in the car, but investigators said they believe they know who was driving.

“When officers and paramedics arrived to the suspect vehicle, there were some occupants inside the vehicle and some outside,” Rock said. “Everyone was transported critical condition.”

The 29-year-old man driving the taxi was pronounced dead at the scene, Rock said.

The passenger in the cab, a 62-year-old man, was also taken to the hospital in critical condition, police said.

Randy Jensen, general manager of Denver Yellow Cab, said the driver was a 29-year-old independent contractor who had worked for the company for more than three years.

He wouldn’t identify him because his daughters, ages 11 and 13, were in school and had not been notified.

“He was a great cabby,” Jensen said. “He felt really good about the business he was in. It’s truly unfortunate.”

A passenger in the cab and three people in the other vehicle were taken to hospitals with serious injuries, officer Aaron Kafer said. As of Monday afternoon, police were still trying to identify the driver of the other vehicle, Kafer said.

Other details, including how fast the vehicle was traveling, are part of the ongoing probe, he said.

Ryan Parker was a reporter for The Denver Post from 2011 until May 2014. A Colorado native, Parker started his career at smaller weeklies and worked for YourHub before becoming a breaking news reporter for The Post.

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